Reading about the augmented future of technical communication triggered a memory. Many years ago, when I worked at Computer Associates, they produced a product called CA-7/OLC. (I think that was the abbreviation.) It was an enhancement to their CA-7 software, which is still used for scheduling jobs on big old mainframe computers. The interface for [...]
Continue reading “Making the Future” »
Yesterday, I expanded on some of the reasons why the world needs technical communicators that were proposed by Ben Minson. My latest challenge from Problogger is about promoting yesterday’s blog post. One of his suggested ways to promote yesterday’s post – do a follow-up post – made me think of something that has bugged me [...]
Continue reading “And why should we care about technical communication?” »
That’s easy to answer. Ben Minson from Gryphon Mountain has a tidy list of the seven reasons your company needs a technical communicator. End Users Need Documentation Technical Communicators Look at the Product with a User Perspective Technical Communicators Help with Quality Assurance Having Quality Documentation Reflects Positively on Your Organization Documentation Provides a Record [...]
Continue reading “Why does the world need technical communicators? (11 reasons)” »
Are you a technical communicator? If you are not sure, here are some examples of people within the technical communication field: Accessibility analysts, content developers, documentation specialists, indexers, information architects, information designers, instructional designers, localization specialists, policies and procedures specialists, researchers, teachers, technical illustrators, technical writers, technical editors, translators, usability and human factors professionals, visual [...]
Continue reading “Open letter to all technical communicators out there” »
When I am asked that question, as I was today, I always try to de-mystify blogs and wikis by saying that they are still websites, only slightly different. I have heard questions at seminars from people who seemed to think that blogs and wikis were new, exotic toys that required more learning and more work [...]
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After writing about anatomical illustrations, I stayed in graphic mode and found another great link with a story, thanks to Visuality. The US National Science Foundation is taking submissions between Sept. 28, 2007 and May 31, 2008 for its Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge in each of five categories: photographs, illustrations, informational graphics, interactive media, [...]
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Are you looking for some more technical writing/communication blogs? Go look at the directory that Tom Johnson set up for tech writing blogs. This list is growing as more technical communicators find their way here and list their blogs. The list just grew by one – I added mine.
Continue reading “Tech Writer Blogs Galore!” »
Sitting in front of the computer day in, day out. Sounds pretty boring and harmless, right? Think again. The Content Wrangler has an interesting article about the health complications that can arise from a lack of balance between work and exercise. The article’s author, Martha Tucker, discusses what happened when she was working on her [...]
Continue reading “How dangerous is the life of a technical writer?” »
I have a penchant for graphics. Perhaps I am a graphic artist in a parallel universe? In this universe where I am just a wannabe, I relish great visual presentations, whether videos, graphs, graphics, layouts, website, or anything else where some concept is communicated visually. These visuals inspire me. That may not be evident right [...]
Continue reading “Choreographing presentations” »
I still subscribe to newsletters, and one in particular that I enjoy is the one from the Chicago Manual of Style team. The newsletter permits you to forward and repost the message, so I will do so here. The newsletter is mostly a list of the most recent questions submitted to the team. Many of [...]
Continue reading “Styling your writing” »
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